One-off stones

[Acmemfg]

Naniwa, Shapton, Dan’s Arkansas, assorted coticules, Norton….the assortment of sharpening media is pretty diverse, but most seem to focus on the garden variety stones like those listed above; and that’s fine.
But let’s take a minute to discuss and display some exotica. Who of the huddled masses uses hones which may be considered unusual, uncommon, or just weird?
Here are a few:
-Zulu Grey
-Rozsutec
-Coe Arkansas Grey and Bethesda Black
-Vermont Green Slate
-Pierre La Lune
-Naniwa Aotoishi

 

[JPO]

I just got this sparkling La Lune from France. It did improve my Les Lat coticule edge. At lest it did not make it worse. It sort of feels like honing on a La Veinnette, even though it is harder.

 

[Steve56]

Left to right, my own modern Pierre la Lune with ‘green eyes’, a vintage blue ‘extra fine’ Pierre la Lune, and a pool table slate. Allegedly the slate is from an Italian pool table and these were being sold by a friend of Glenn Mercurio. Glenn got one and liked it so I did too, and it’s a great razor finisher. It makes a very sharp but smooth edge similar to the Lune but not as aggressive and just a tad less sharp.

 

[Wid]

I have a Coe Bethesda Black and a Coe Dota Creek. That is the first two pictured.

Then there are these unknown slates. The wider one I use before my Dans black. It’s a pretty fine stone and you can shave off it. The second one is another slate I found locally. This one to me is a real nice finisher, the edge is pretty typical of a fine natural stone, sharp but yet smooth. There are only three of these exact stones, I have two and one was sold to a member here.Both were found here in town. It was told to me that they were from a local butcher shop and was taken from the shop 25+ years ago. They were in raw form and both quite large. I cut them down to size and lapped them to what you see now.

 

[Legion]

I suppose this counts as a one off.

I call it the blood stone, because of the colour of the slurry. It is a piece of unusual red slate I found in the wild and lapped.

It gives a pretty good edge when used with oil.

 

[LJS]

Too many unidentifiable stones and even a couple of hones in my piles. What is annoying is when they are really good and you have never seen another……

 

[Toro Blanco]

I have a Hatatoshi Kurumaguchi that I have never seen one posted on here or SRP in the couple of years I have owned it.
It's as rare as hens teeth. The definition of fast and fine to boot! My most prized stone.

No one has posted one of these either. Family member found it while on vacation in Oaxaca Mexico. Great knife stone!

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah if you "Hone gamble" you'll wind up with a good pile of "mystery" hones that are good shavers.

I've had ballpark a dozen mystery Slates that were 90% as good as a thuri (so better than most everything else), and maybe 1-2 mystery slates that were thuri quality but clearly not a thuri.

Then I've had maybe three or four ultra hard naturals that were about hybrid les lat coticule quality, but again, clearly not a coti.

And finally another 3-4 unmarked vintage synthetics that beat out almost every stamped/labeled barbers synth I tried.

 

[cotedupy]

I have a Hatatoshi Kurumaguchi that I have never seen one posted on here or SRP in the couple of years I have owned it.
It's as rare as hens teeth. The definition of fast and fine to boot! My most prized stone.
View attachment 1365525View attachment 1365526View attachment 1365527View attachment 1365528
No one has posted one of these either. Family member found it while on vacation in Oaxaca Mexico. Great knife stone!

Love it! I can think of little I want more than a beautiful Mexican whetstone... can I get one without having to go to Oaxaca in person...?

 

[cotedupy]

I have a fair few niche things, including a Rozsutec, Israeli stones, and a number of things from the UK and Europe. But I'm going to answer in a slightly different way. Here are some truly, truly, excellent Japanese stones that won't be talked about much here, but are very highly regarded...

Maruoyama Shiro Suita, very strong candidate for being the best stone I own:

Natsuya:

This is an old stone from a mine in Iyo:

Stone on the left is a Nakayama, which people probably do talk about here, but this one's a bit different... it's a 3.5 Tomae. On the right is an old Tanaka Aoto, an absolutely glorious stone:

 

[cotedupy]

And a few more niche, non-Japanese things...

L to R: Dalmore Blue, Hindostan, Willunga Slate, Wastikivi.

A knife honing rod I made out of a weird-shape Tam O'Shanter pruning shear stone:

This (I believe) is a Lydite touchstone, it makes my black and translucent arks look like Play-Doh:

 

[JPO]

And a few more niche, non-Japanese things...

L to R: Dalmore Blue, Hindostan, Willunga Slate, Wastikivi.

View attachment 1366895

A knife honing rod I made out of a weird-shape Tam O'Shanter pruning shear stone:

View attachment 1366894

This (I believe) is a Lydite touchstone, it makes my black and translucent arks look like Play-Doh:

View attachment 1366892

I am getting my Maruoyama Shiro Suita today. Do you use it for razors or knifes?I was hoping mine was a candidate for knifes and midrange razor honing.
Seems like i have something to look forward to.

 

[cotedupy]

I am getting my Maruoyama Shiro Suita today. Do you use it for razors or knifes?I was hoping mine was a candidate for knifes and midrange razor honing.
Seems like i have something to look forward to.
View attachment 1367044

Ah sweet... awesome stone, congratulations on some first-rate purchase decision making!

I use mine on knives, in particular they are utterly superb for kasumi / bevel polishing work. In terms of cutting they're quite slow, and leave relatively refined edges. For sharpening I one really use mine for the final stage of single bevel knives. But yeah - for polishing they're just dreamy.

They're relatively soft, and will self slurry nicely, starting with just a little water and adding more as you get going. So you'd need to bear that in mind if using with a razor and you don't want too much slurry. The way to go I think would be to flood it with a lot of water, which will lead to less mud generation. I haven't actually used mine with a razor yet but I imagine it would work very nicely in the range of around 7-8k. It'd probably be particularly good for erasing previous scratches and making the bevel super slick and shiny before going onto a true finishing stone.

All in all - yes, your idea for both knife use and mid range razor work is spot on imo .


NB - make sure to seal if not already. The combination of suji + a soft stone that would suck up a bit of water seems potentially dangerous.

 

[Toro Blanco]

Love it! I can think of little I want more than a beautiful Mexican whetstone... can I get one without having to go to Oaxaca .

It is a great knife stone cotedupy. You would love it! It is very fast cutter and you can slurry it. It is on the hard side but leaves a very even scratch pattern.
It eats up hard steals like swedish and Aogami Super but I have not tried any of the super steels.
By far my favorite natural knife stone!
The only bad part is he does not ship outside the Country. He ships anywhere in the Counrty fast and cheap.
The stone is 10"×4.5"×2.5" and cost me a little less than 25$ dollars. A trully great value for this quality of stone.
I have a 56 pound stone at my uncle's house waiting for me. LOL!
If you want I have his cell phone number I can give you by way of private message.

 

[JPO]

Ah sweet... awesome stone, congratulations on some first-rate purchase decision making!

I use mine on knives, in particular they are utterly superb for kasumi / bevel polishing work. In terms of cutting they're quite slow, and leave relatively refined edges. For sharpening I one really use mine for the final stage of single bevel knives. But yeah - for polishing they're just dreamy.

They're relatively soft, and will self slurry nicely, starting with just a little water and adding more as you get going. So you'd need to bear that in mind if using with a razor and you don't want too much slurry. The way to go I think would be to flood it with a lot of water, which will lead to less mud generation. I haven't actually used mine with a razor yet but I imagine it would work very nicely in the range of around 7-8k. It'd probably be particularly good for erasing previous scratches and making the bevel super slick and shiny before going onto a true finishing stone.

All in all - yes, your idea for both knife use and mid range razor work is spot on imo .


NB - make sure to seal if not already. The combination of suji + a soft stone that would suck up a bit of water seems potentially dangerous.

It is an interesting stone. It is allot harder den i thought. It feels like honing on velvet, if that makes any sense. It does not autoslurry that much if i start with a clean stone. Almost nothing happens if i try to generate slurry with a dmt, but if i rub a harder nagura stone on it, it kicks up slurry easy. Once the slurry has started to release allot more slurry is released from the stone. This is the only stone i have that behaves like this.
Sealed and ready

 

[cotedupy]

It is an interesting stone. It is allot harder den i thought. It feels like honing on velvet, if that makes any sense. It does not autoslurry that much if i start with a clean stone. Almost nothing happens if i try to generate slurry with a dmt, but if i rub a harder nagura stone on it, it kicks up slurry easy. Once the slurry has started to release allot more slurry is released from the stone. This is the only stone i have that behaves like this.
Sealed and ready
View attachment 1367695
View attachment 1367696

Very nice! Yours does perhaps sound a little harder than mine, though that silken, velvet feel is definitely the same, and also the way that you need to start the slurry slowly and then it escalates from there. A good video here, done by the guy I got mine from, you can see how he adds just the tiniest amount of water to begin with, and increases it as the mud builds:

(Also - I might not have been clear, but when I said they self slurried nicely - that's for bevel polishing of a knife, so with an awful lot of metal in contact with the stone. Mine wouldn't self slurry really for normal edge sharpening of a knife or razor.)

 

[cotedupy]

It is a great knife stone cotedupy. You would love it! It is very fast cutter and you can slurry it. It is on the hard side but leaves a very even scratch pattern.
It eats up hard steals like swedish and Aogami Super but I have not tried any of the super steels.
By far my favorite natural knife stone!
The only bad part is he does not ship outside the Country. He ships anywhere in the Counrty fast and cheap.
The stone is 10"×4.5"×2.5" and cost me a little less than 25$ dollars. A trully great value for this quality of stone.
I have a 56 pound stone at my uncle's house waiting for me. LOL!
If you want I have his cell phone number I can give you by way of private message.

Sounds fantastic! Alas I don't know anyone in Mexico I don't think, though my sister and I have been planning to go and travel round there for a while now, so I'll certainly be looking these up when we manage to .

(Though do give a shout if you ever have a spare and fancy selling one...)

 

[camoloc]

I've often thought of the Vermont Slate.

if it comes off anywhere near a Charnley forrest I'd drop the $$$ in a second.

just haven't heard enough about them.

camo

 

[Empire straights]

I've often thought of the Vermont Slate.

if it comes off anywhere near a Charnley forrest I'd drop the $$$ in a second.

just haven't heard enough about them.

camo

My wife is giving me a Charnley forest for Christmas and I'm excited to try it.

 

[camoloc]

My wife is giving me a Charnley forest for Christmas and I'm excited to try it.

happen to know the dimensions of the arriving rock???

definately jealous!!!

happy Thanksgiving......be well.

camo